In 1967, three good friends, Paul, Ben and Frank, are forced to flee Hong Kong after killing a mafioso. They arrive in a war-torn Saigon and join up with local thugs. They work for a killer, Luke, who is plotting a nasty blow against his boss. They then find themselves propelled on a hellish journey…
John Woo’s ill-fated film, Bullet in the Head, is his most ambitious and most personal film. Based on a trio of characters that he portrays as embodying the utopia of perfect friendship, the film bears witness to a slow and agonising disillusion. Here, violence is not given an aesthetic slant as is the case in his previous film, The Killer. Here, it is concentrated in an infernal cycle, an endless loop locking the characters into a circle of war and mafia, money and countless guns.
M.M.
